Yu Di ran for his life as fast as he could. He would have flown away if he could, but he doubted the dragon in the sky would have let him get away so easily.

  Except despite running faster than all the animals chasing him, he realized a fault in this plan. His pocket dimension was a donut. And a very small donut.

  The moment he got far enough away from the murderous animals, he saw them in front of him again. Only they didn’t notice him yet.

  Yu Di stopped hard and ran at a 90 degree angle instead. Sure enough, after a few paces, he found the hole of the donut. There was a small space within the donut that only he could access.

  Normally he’d use it to modify his pocket dimension, but now it was the best place to hide while he figured out what happened.

  A part of the sky blinked at him through the donut hole. That’s where the two skies met. It was also the door to his hideout.

  A bunny nipped him on the heel.

  “Son of a…” Yu Di stomped on the bunny before it could bite him again. But another bunny took its place.

  Yu Di focused on his demigod technique and willed the world around him to do it. Qi formed a wall of earth all around him. Since it wasn't his use of Qi, it shouldn't have activated his curse. But there was a problem. The Qi was not as dense as it should have been, creating a weak wall.

  It held for a moment before collapsing. Cute, little fluffballs with red eyes of rage and foaming at the mouth bounced at him.

  That moment was all Yu Di needed. He tapped the sky at the point where it blinked.

  “Everything for advancement.”

  The passcode was accepted and a small door opened.

  Yu Di jumped in right before a wall of bunnies slammed into him along with all the other mythical animals on their heels.

  Yu Di slammed the door shut right in their faces. Soft thuds hit the door like a beating drum out of rhythm.

  One of the bunnies made it through. It bared its fangs at Yu Di, ready to pounce.

  It was Yu Di’s turn to smile, baring his own canines.

  “I know what I’m eating tonight.”

  The bunny looked around and realized it was alone.

  Before it could scamper away, Yu Di grabbed it by the ears.

  “You are more bark than bite, huh? You probably waited until all the others attacked before you jumped in. Too bad for you.”

  The bunny’s snarling face dropped and it showed its big eyes. It hunched up in a ball, its ears pinned back, and it was shaking.

  Yu Di rolled his eyes before tossing the bunny away onto the ground. It would be a waste as he couldn’t replace them anymore.

  The bunny yipped before running away as fast as a rat would.

  Yu Di walked over to a large jade tablet. He tapped a small orange crystal on the side, turning it red. Words sprang to life across its screen.

  Waiting for key.

  Yu Di took out his smaller jade tablet. He slid it into place with the larger tablet. The large jade tablet glowed yellow for a second.

  Initializing…

  Yu Di sat back and took out a bun from his storage ring. This would take a while.

  As he took a large bite of his bun, he had a sinking feeling that it was Yu Lin that released all the monsters. She had it in her hands and swung it like mad, possibly activating all the monsters he had stored in the pocket dimension for training. And maybe, she was trying to get revenge on Yu Di for releasing those bunnies on her.

  Yu Di loved his daughter, but she could be a troll.

  The tablet blinked green.

  Welcome Yu Di.

  Words scrolled down. It was worse than he expected.

  The animals weren’t released by his daughter. The pocket dimension was breaking down due to the lack of ambient high level Qi. It was using the animals as a power source.

  There was further bad news.

  His jade tablet uploaded all his vitals into the large one, which then gave a more accurate calculation of his life:

  Current Power: Realm 1, Stage 1, Peak level (Qi condensation)

  Remaining Lifespan: 9 years, 11 months.

  Overall Status: Cursed (11.5% lifted), Marked

  Overall Power: Fourth Realm, End Stage, Peak level (Demigod)

  For whatever reason, he lost about five years of his life. He had less time to unlock his curse. And he feared that after the festival, he would lose even more.

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  Yu Di really didn’t want to die. Not anymore.

  He walked over to the corner of the small room and lit three sticks of incense. He placed them into a small pot in front of his parents’ ancestral tablets.

  Yu Di got on his knees and pressed his palms together.

  “Father, mother, I know it has been a while since I have prayed to you. I have been busy trying to raise your granddaughter. Now I come to you again. Please, protect her. You don’t have to do anything for me. I’ll be joining you two soon enough.”

  Yu Di got up, dusted his knees, and stood in front of his jade tablet. It was time to cultivate and he only had ten days left.

  He pressed the left side of the tablet’s edge. Four pearls of different colors appeared. He pressed the very top one.

  A large scroll unfurled itself on the tablet. It was Yu Di’s personal cultivation manual to reach the Core Formation stage. It differed from the one he gave to Bai Feng in that this one utilized every little quirk that was specific to Yu Di.

  This was the one thing he would have to beat into Yu Lin. To reach the heights of cultivation, one needed to know themselves. They needed to know how they view the world and how that unique perspective allows them to connect with it.

  Most people thought that all they needed to do was absorb the Qi and they would become stronger. But there was always a limit to how much one could absorb. Eventually, one had to wield it like any tool and shape their own bodies with it.

  And that unique shaping was what made the path of cultivation the most difficult. It required understanding both physical and mental attributes of one’s own body.

  Just like that, ten days passed by in a blink of an eye. A bell sounded ten times to warn Yu Di.

  Yu Di hadn’t experienced increasing his levels like that in… Wait, he had never experienced such an increase in power in such a short amount of time.

  He opened his eyes and the jade tablet was off. Not that he needed it in the first place. Just reading the first few lines reminded Yu Di of the rest.

  Yu Di tapped the jade tablet back on. It displayed his current stats:

  Current Power: Realm 1, Stage 2, End Stage (Foundation Establishment)

  Remaining Lifespan: 9 years, 11 months.

  Current Status: Cursed (11.5% lifted), Marked

  Overall Power: Fourth Realm, End Stage, Peak level

  At that moment, he was only a little stronger than his daughter and about as strong as Elder Li. Hopefully that would be enough to keep him alive. If he had more time, he felt that he could have cultivated to a higher level. He didn’t feel as if he hit the limits of his unlocked curse yet.

  Yu Di grabbed his personal tablet and shut the large one down. He made sure to take everything with him on his way out.

  With a tap, the door opened. Light streamed into his little hideout. Yu Di hadn’t seen the light in ten days. He felt a shuffling by his feet and watched as the bunny shot out of there.

  Knowing how the world was cannibalizing the animals, that bunny was probably the last of its kind in here. They weren’t very strong to begin with.

  Yu Di walked back toward the exit of the donut only to stop at the dizzying sight.

  A field of white bunnies and sharp fangs stood on their hind legs, gorging themselves on the other mythical animals. They all stopped and turned toward Yu Di.

  The only animal spared was the dragon as it flew in the sky. It looked down at Yu Di either with a hateful glare or a spiteful one. He could never tell with that dragon.

  As long as it didn’t strike with its powerful lightning, then Yu Di didn’t care which way he looked. But he was the least of his worries.

  The bunnies were on the move.

  They were slow at first. Looking like they’ve gorged on too much meat. But their beady eyes told Yu Di all he needed to know.

  They wanted revenge.

  Revenge for trapping them in this world. Revenge for being used as tools.

  Yu Di stretched his neck, his arms, and his legs. He hadn’t moved around for a while, but his body wasn’t stiff. The beauty of being a cultivator, especially one with more Qi flowing through his meridians.

  He needed a workout anyway.

  The bunnies all charged at him, fangs out. Somehow they had grown claws over the last ten days.

  Yu Di kicked the first one that got too close. His toes hurt.

  Yu Di wasn’t the only one to get stronger in the last ten days. These bunnies were at the peak of Qi condensation at least.

  It wasn’t time to play around.

  Yu Di took out his trident. The indomitable steel reflected the sun’s rays, blinding the first row of bunnies.

  He swept the trident down and then around him, pushing all the bunnies away. He focused on the handle and pushed his Qi into it.

  The trident hummed in his hands, tasting his stronger Qi. It thirsted for more, but it had to make do with what Yu Di gave it.

  This was the perfect time to test it out. Yu Di lifted the tines of his trident and blasted Qi at the bunnies. The Qi bursts crashed into wave after wave of bunnies.

  Yu Di miscalculated how many bunnies there were. In seconds he would be overwhelmed. He needed a new plan.

  Yu Di ran to gain some distance. He couldn’t keep shooting at them forever. His Qi was already running low.

  Yu Di regretted the choice to capture these bunnies now. The guy at the market said they would be easy for practice. They could also make good food, he said. Now he was about to be eaten by them.

  Also curse his original design choice. There were no trees or buildings or anything to fortify his position. Not only that, the donut shape made his situation worse as the bunnies were coming from all directions.

  Yu Di looked to the heavens. The only being who could save him now was up there. All the dragon needed to do was unleash one of his attacks.

  Of course, that would mean the dragon had to make sure not to kill Yu Di in the process. The same dragon that he tricked into drinking from a special gourd that captured him.

  What’s worse was that Yu Di could escape from this pocket dimension himself, but the release spell required his full concentration for twenty seconds while reciting the phrase. Normally that wouldn’t be a problem, except he was about to be devoured by a horde of bunnies.

  Yu Di staked his trident into the ground. He climbed to the very butt end and stood on one foot.

  The bunnies advanced, heedless of the Qi building up in the trident.

  Yu Di called this "the idiot special." Only non-thinking idiots fell for his next attack.

  With his hanging foot, he stomped on his other foot. That sent Qi rocketing down into the trident, down into the tines, and then reverberated outward. The wave of Qi surged up from the ground, seeking the least dense environment, and then washed over the bunnies like a scythe through a rice field.

  Yu Di dropped to the ground, using the trident as a cane. Otherwise he would have been kneeling on the floor. That last attack took everything out of him.

  He summoned what little Qi he had left and recited the escape phrase as quickly as he could. The necklace was reacting and he could feel a wave of cool air wrapping around him.

  The bunnies didn’t let up. The remaining group charged at Yu Di. But they were too far away. There was no way they’d reach him before twenty seconds was up.

  That’s when Yu Di heard the loud roar from above.

  The dragon flew above him, its mouth generating a Qi attack, filled with lightning and terror.

  Why now? Why didn’t it blast Yu Di the moment he showed up?

  Yu Di watched as lightning formed above his head, bright and terrible. The energy arced toward him. That’s when he realized something. His trident.

  He let go of the trident right before the next lightning strike engulfed the indomitable metal. Every strike after kept hitting it over and over, as if attracted to nothing else.

  Luckily the strikes sank deep into the ground, traveling out through the tines. Otherwise, Yu Di would be shredded into minced meat.

  He was almost done chanting the phrase and a small part of him wanted to grab his trident. It was his main weapon. However, he knew that if he tried, he would be fried instantly.

  Yu Di finished the phrase and felt his body phase out of his pocket dimension.

  “Curse you dragon!”